A government negotiating with another government is almost inevitably required to conduct a second negotiation with its own domestic constituents whose own interests will be affected by the outcome. The classic image is the negotiator facing his foreign

adversary over one table, then swiveling around to confront his domestic adversaries at a second table.

In the current negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear program, the United States is facing something even more daunting. It is engaged in at least four separate negotiations at the same time.

As talks between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States still need to resolve the most difficult issues on a permanent agreement before a July 20 deadline established by the temporary agreement last November in Geneva, Iran Primer offers a snapshot of the chessboard as seen by the United States side of the table.

Gary Sick, principal White House aide for Iran and the Persian Gulf on the Carter administration's National Security Council, is now executive director of Gulf/2000, an international online research project on the Persian Gulf at Columbia University.